Tag: animal rights

Animals are mammals, just like humans. Thus, all animals should have the same rights as humans. This article brought up an interesting, yet questionable perspective on animal rights. When it comes to rights, Roger Scruton believes that “rights and duties” go hand in hand. He makes a point that animals “don’t have rights of their own since rights and duties go together, and since only humans have duties, he says that ‘the corollary is inescapable: we alone have rights.’” This is wrong to believe because all living, breathing things, especially mammals, should be entitled to the same rights.

This is also only applying to humans because we need duties to function in society, not to live. Animals do not have duties because their behaviors do not affect society in that way. Animals do not have limits that stop them from doing things because they do not have to face consequences, unlike humans who can face things such as jail. For example, if a lion kills an antelope there will not be any consequences for that lion because he is just doing what nature allows him to do. Humans and animals live extremely differently lives but regardless these mammals accomplish necessary duties that are needed within their own society and for their own selves, therefore the claim previously made is skeptical.

Humans have more advanced duties because our brains are further developed than animals but this does not mean that animals should not be entailed to having the same rights. Yes, animals are used as food and will continue to be for as long as eternity, but the way they are raised on farms and live their lives is still apart of their rights. Testing on animals does not permit them to having a long and happy life. Another point that he made was that people often think that humans are cruel for testing on animals not because the animals have rights, but because this then makes the human look cruel for doing so. However, this is wrong as well because animals still have consequences with nature for their actions but not when it comes to doing things that society would normally frown upon.

Animal Rights is an issue that advocates have been fighting for tirelessly and continuously as years have progressed. Mercy For Animals is an advocacy group that is on the frontlines for protecting farmed animals. MFA reports on their website that they are there to speak up against cruelty, and strive for the compassion that animals deserve. In addition, the MFA goes as far as conducting investigations in these industrial farms to try to prevent the nine billion animals that are killed there a year.

PETA, another organization striving for animal rights rightfully states, “Whether it’s based on race, gender, sexual orientation, or species, prejudice is morally unacceptable.” Our society accepts eating pigs but not dogs, while they have the same capability of pain. There should be no specific distinction for which species is “okay” to kill. We must remember that our comfortable way of living is allowed to be questioned, and when we finally start, we can make a difference for these animals.

It is one thing to improve conditions for animals, but another to completely abolish their exploitation that humans benefit from. The Animal Rights Coalition
tells their website visitors that they believe that animals are morally entitled to pursue their lives free of human violence.

All of these organizations share a common idea, which is that animals are morally entitled to their own rights. Ethically, species should not be separating whether or not we have the right to kill a living animal. We have a whole war against killing a fetus that has not even taken a breath in the world yet, but we unthinkingly let billions of animals a year be killed for our own personal interests, many not even for food but for entertainment, make up or clothing. It is vital that we have these organizations to protect these animals because if we did not, they would have no voice for their own fate.